ORNL director to speak at Smyser lecture

Friends of ORNL continues the 15th annual Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series on Oct. 16 featuring Thomas Mason speaking on “Oak Ridge National Laboratory: An Update.”

Friends of ORNL continues the 15th annual Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series on Oct. 16 featuring Thomas Mason speaking on "Oak Ridge National Laboratory: An Update." Mason is the lab's director.

The lecture is free and will be held at the American Museum of Science and Energy, 300 S. Tulane Ave. A reception starts at 6 p.m. — refreshments will be provided by the Soup Kitchen — and the lecture starts at 6:30 p.m.

ORNL has acquired a suite of capabilities for achieving its mission of scientific discovery and innovation for clean energy and global security. Its scientific agenda also includes a strong focus on maximizing the laboratory's impact through technology transfer and through graduate research and education.

Mason is originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He majored in physics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, where he met his wife, Jennifer McGillivray, and received his Ph.D. from McMaster University in Toronto.

Mason joined ORNL in 1998 to participate in the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) project. He was named associate laboratory director for the SNS in 2001, leading this $1.4 billion project to completion on time, on budget and on scope with an outstanding safety record. In 2006 with the SNS in operation, he was named associate laboratory director for Neutron Sciences. In July 2007 he became director of ORNL and president and CEO of UT-Battelle LLC.

Mason has authored or co-authored more than 100 papers in the open scientific literature. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society. In 2005, he received the Postma Young Professional Award from the East Tennessee Economic Council, and in 2008 he received the Distinguished Alumni Award for the Sciences from McMaster University.

Mason and Jennifer live in Oak Ridge with their two sons, William and Simon. He serves as chairman of the Oak Ridge Public Schools Foundation, which helped to raise $55 million for the renovation of Oak Ridge High School. He also chaired the board of directors of Innovation Valley Inc. and is a member of the ETEC board of directors.

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